The Impact of Air Quality Regulations on Distributed ... - NREL

<strong>The</strong> principal benefits being realized today
include the following:
• Reliability. Credit card processing
centers, internet services, and other
key elements <strong>of</strong> our information-based
economy can require 99.9999%
reliable electric service or better.
Disruptions in electric service can be
extremely expensive in terms <strong>of</strong> lost
business or disruptions in their
customers’ business activities. Since
the grid provides only 99.9%
reliability, which is sufficient for most
utility customers, businesses requiring
higher reliability have relied on
distributed energy resources,
particularly, DG and electric storage
to provide the level <strong>of</strong> reliability they
require.
<strong>The</strong> Value <strong>of</strong> Reliability
A recent study 15 found that the nation’s industrial
and “digital economy” companies collectively
lose $45.7 billion per year to power outages. This
enormous value becomes more understandable
when one considers the following valuation <strong>of</strong>
downtime in specific industries:
Industry Cost <strong>of</strong> Downtime
Cellular communications $41,000/hr
Telephone ticket sales $72,000/hr
Credit card operations $2,580,000/hr
Brokerage operations $6,480,000/hr
• Power <strong>Quality</strong>. Manufacturers with
sensitive processes, such as
semiconductor manufacturing or
plastic injection molding, or
numerically controlled operations, can
lose entire production runs if the
voltage levels or frequency <strong>of</strong> the
power in the plant fluctuate. 18 Again,
18 “<strong>The</strong> Cost <strong>of</strong> Power Disturbances to Industrial and Digital
Economy Companies,” Lineweber and McNulty, Primen for
EPRI. Power “quality” is the term most <strong>of</strong>ten used for
relatively short term power disturbances such as harmonics
(harmonics result from distortions to the voltage and/or
current sine waves and are commonly caused by, industrial
11
the levels <strong>of</strong> voltage or frequency
fluctuations that cause large economic
loss to these industries may not even
be noticeable to the average customer
and are beyond the level <strong>of</strong> power
quality the utility provides. And,
again, DG is meeting the need for
power quality in ways that the central
grid cannot.
• Reduced Cost. Especially in areas
where electricity prices are high, CHP
and peak shaving applications <strong>of</strong> DG
can compete favorably with the cost <strong>of</strong>
bulk power from the grid. As an
alternative to bulk power, DG can
reduce the load that the grid serves
and contribute to stabilizing electricity
prices.
• Inherent Security Advantages.
Without the dependence on hard-toprotect
transmission and distribution
facilities, and because <strong>of</strong> their
dispersed nature, DG has clear
advantages in reducing security
concerns and vulnerabilities.
Renewable distributed technologies
have additional security advantages
based on their fuel independence.
2.4.2 <strong>Air</strong> <strong>Quality</strong> Benefits <strong>of</strong> DG
Determining whether DG will increase or
reduce air emissions is difficult for several
reasons:
• <strong>The</strong>re are a wide range <strong>of</strong> DG
technologies and an even wider range
<strong>of</strong> emissions characteristics—from
zero-emission renewables to diesel
engines that emit relatively high levels
<strong>of</strong> certain pollutants. <strong>The</strong> technologies
processes, certain electronic loads, and wiring connections),
surges (Surges are caused by over-voltages resulting from
lightning, switching on the utility power system and other
causes), and sags (Sags are under-voltages on the power
system and commonly caused by power failures, downed
lines, utility recloser operations, and storms.) Reliability is
the term used for longer disturbances or “interruptions”
where the issue is not the quality <strong>of</strong> the wave form <strong>of</strong> the
power flow, but the lack <strong>of</strong> power flow.